Winners of ESL Cologne 2017: SK Gaming stays dominant

The ESL Cologne is over and we came to a conclusion: SK Gaming is the best Counterstrike team in the world right now. The ESL Cologne crowned SK their champions 2017 and the team celebrated their triumph together with the crowd. Winning their third major title in two months and their fifth in 2017, there seems to be no stopping this team.

Playing in a best-of-five-series, they defeated Cloud 9 in only 3 Maps and were able to retaliate even when cornered. The game started on Cobblestone and Marcelo “coldzera” David showed amazing skill. He was able to carry the team through the first set on the Terrorist-side and they ended the round 10-5. Even after Cloud 9 pushed back, they weren’t able to hold their momentum, and SK closed the series 16-9. Coldzera in particular performed well with an amazing frag score of 28 kills.

The next series started on Train. Cloud 9 pulled themselves together and took revenge by taking the first set 10-5. SK wasn’t gonna let the disadvantage dictate the game and reversed the momentum, taking 9 straight wins and ending the round 16-12. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo was the MVP of the series, racking up 24 kills with an impressive 129,9 ADR in the second series.

Cloud 9 had no choice but to put all their bets on the third map: Inferno. With their backs against the wall they aggressively took the lead in the series, starting it with a 9-1 score, but the set again ended in another 10-5, after C9 lost the pistol round. In the second set SK and C9 pushed back and forth, trying to dominate the other. SK reached map point after a close 14-14 anti-eco round and was finally able to break through with a good defense of the B site, ending the game 16-14.

The match-ups of the upcoming PGL major 2017 in Krakow

Everyone is looking to SK to win the upcoming PGL Major in Krakow from July 16th to 23rd, they are the team to beat and right now it looks like no one can. Penta Sports, their first opponents in the Major, will have a truly terrifying adversary. We are excited for the games to come and will report again when the time comes.